AprU 18, 1867. ] 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



285 



reap the legitimate fmits of their folly, which ought not in 

 strict fairness to be charged as a necessary result of recent de- 

 cisions, though I must say that the eminent " professional 

 judge " who informed " Falcon " that he always looked with 

 suspicion even on " heavily feathered legs," did his share 

 towards causing the evil. 



It cannot be too strongly insisted upon that the hock of 

 every Cochin or Brahma ought to be well covered with soft 

 feathers, nicely curled round and hiding the joint. This is not 

 vulture hock, which consists of stiff and straight feathers pro- 

 jecting over the joint so as to form a distinct spur upon the 

 limb ; and I must say that if judges in general come to share 

 the feeling of the " professional judge " already alluded to, 

 whose name I do not know, and discountenance what ought 

 rather to be insisted upon as the only correct feathering, we 

 shall soon be all wishing to see hocks as large as my hand, 

 rather than what we shall see. 



It will be seen that I am no friend to the vulture hock ; yet 

 there has been a most uncommon amount of incorrect as- 

 sertion rashly made upon the other side. For instance, it has 

 been said in these pages by " one of our ablest judges," whose 

 name again I do not know, that vulture hock is altogether a recent 

 introduction, perpetuated by " some unhappy wight " who 

 ought to have " stamped it out," but did not ! Now it has 

 again and again been stated upon unquestionable authority 

 that some of the earliest importations of Cochins contained 

 vulture-hocked birds, and I am able to assert in the most posi- 

 tive manner that the greater number of the really Dark 

 Brahma cocks imported from America were also very much 

 vulture-hocked, the feathers in some nearly sweeping the ground. 

 Neither can vulture hock be "stamped out" so readily as 

 some would have us believe. Discouraged and kept under 

 control it may be, and I think, for iEsthetic reasons, should 

 be, without any detriment to the breed ; but I am satisfied it 

 can never be absolutely exterminated, except at the price of 

 losing good leg-feathering, for in every well-feathered strain 

 the vulture hock will appear from time to time ; and although, as 

 ought to be the case, the birds thus furnished may be only one 

 or two in a year, it is singularly probable that those few will be 

 the largest, strongest, and best-shaped birds of the whole. 

 This arises simply from the fact, that the cause of the vulture 

 hock is unusual strength and vigour in the glands which 

 nourish the plumage, leading to luxuriant feathering ; just as 

 strong men usually have more and coarser hair than weaker 

 ones. Such birds, therefore, in everything save the con- 

 demned feature, are the most perfect types of the breed, and 

 often the very best to breed from, especially when crossing 

 into a weakly, small, or badly-feathered strain ; though it 

 should be noted, that whilst such a cross will often throw 

 beautifully and quite correctly feathered chickens, the usual 

 result is either the bare shanks of one parent or the vulture 

 hock of the other. 



Now, I hold it as a sound principle that any feature which is 

 peculiarly apt to occur in birds which are otherwise the very 

 best type of a breed, and in many respects the most desirable 

 to breed from, cannot, without injury to that type, be absolutely 

 disqualified, as is the case now. If such an inexorable rule be 

 laid down, the result will be, and now is, that the majority of 

 breeders will make any sacrifice of other points rather than 

 run the slightest risk of the fatal disqualification. That it 

 need not be so I have shown, but that it is so any one may 

 see ; and I have now somewhere in my possession a note from 

 one of the most celebrated and accomplished poultry-breeders 

 in England, who ought to know better, remarking that " vulture 

 hocks being now disqualified, we have been compelled to fall 

 back for breeding upon the scantily- feathered birds." I deny 

 that the inference is correct, but it is, unfortunately, general. 



On the whole, therefore, I would strongly urge that the old 

 wording of the " Standard " should be restored as the law of our 

 poultry judging upon this point — in other terms, that vulture 

 hocks be considered " objectionable, but not a disqualification ;" 

 to be discouraged as an unsightly blemish, but not to put a 

 fine bird at once and absolutely out of court. There are cer- 

 tainly one or two mistakes in that useful publication, " long 

 necks " in Brahmas being one ; but, on the whole, its com- 

 pilers knew what they were about ; and I think the restitution 

 of their original dictum, while it would be sufficient to keep the 

 vulture hock under control, would meet all the real necessities 

 of the case and the wishes of nearly all practical breeders. 



It is high time this subject should be seriously reconsidered, 

 calmly and impartially, instead of in the partisan spirit which 

 has hitherto so much prevailed. That the rule as it stands has 



done great harm cannot be questioned ; and that such evil can 

 be shown to be unnecessary, does not mend it as an unfor- 

 tunate fact. That the views here expressed wiU please the 

 ultras of either school it may be folly to expect ; but they are 

 the result of an anxious desire to form a correct judgment 

 upon this vexed question, and I venture to ask for them the 

 candid consideration of our poultry judges. — Nemo. 



[Without any reservation we record as our opinion, that 

 making the vulture hock either in Cochin-Chinas or Brahma 

 Pootras a disquahfication is a great mistake. Vulture hocks 

 are not only usual developments in these varieties, but are so 

 frequently borne by strong, well-developed birds, that we might 

 venture to say that vulture hocks are rarely if ever found on 

 weakly birds. 



Tastes vary, and despite " Nemo's " incredulity, we acknow- 

 ledge ourselves admirers of the vulture hock per se. This, 

 however, does not influence our judgment ; and if the majority 

 of the breeders prefer birds without such hocks let them be 

 discouraged, but do not anathematise them. If a pen of 

 Brahma Pootras is superior to all its competitors in other 

 points, do not act so unjustly and so unwisely as to disquaUfy 

 it on account of having vulture hocks. The absence of such 

 hocks is not, like the fifth toe of the Dorking, a mark of purity 

 of breed. — Eos.] 



BRAH:MA POOTRAS. 

 I DO not know whether I am the correspondent of the old 

 "Poultry Chronicle" to whom " Y. B. A. Z." refers in your 

 last Number, page 267, but I made experiments some years 

 ago, which I recorded in that Journal at the time, for the 

 purpose of obtaining the pea-comb, which was alleged to be 

 peculiar to the Brahma. I "raised " several chickens from a 

 Malay hen and a Cochin cock, and obtained by that cross the 

 true pea-comb, and the cruel expression of countenance too ; 

 and I am inclined to think that this is a remnant of the Malay 

 cross whenever seen, or at least is generally so. I have never 

 from the first hesitated to believe the account given in on 

 American poultry-book — Bennett's, I think it is— of the origin 

 of this variety of fowls. I remember M. Garbonati's fowls 

 well. I also recollect the wonderful pair bought by Mr. H. D. 

 Davies for £105. Up to the time these were shown, light birds 

 used to obtain prizes commonly ; after they put iu an appear- 

 ance nothing but dark birds went down with the judges. I 

 also recollect seeing the progeny of these birds at Mr. Davies's ; 

 a more mongrel lot cannot be conceived — pea-combed and 

 single-combed, some almost white, others almost black, it was 

 impossible to pick out two ahke. I believe that the breed has 

 been made, as the Sebright and Game Bantams have been 

 within a few years, and the avowed difficulty %vhich breeders 

 find in keeping the colour pure and getting rid of buff feathers 

 corroborates my belief. — P. 



RAILWAY EXTORTION AT LORD TREDEGAR'S 

 POULTRY SHOW. 



At this Show, held at the close of last year, I found the 

 charges made, especially for the homeward journey, shamefully 

 excessive, so much so as to determine me never again to ex- 

 hibit there unless the Great Western Railway relieved exhi- 

 bitors from this unfair charge. I determined, therefore, to 

 see how far my fellow exhibitors shared my feelings. Accord- 

 ingly, to ascertain their sentiments, I made out a list of those 

 that I fancied must have been victimised, adding their ad- 

 dresses, and headed this list with a few words to my fellow- 

 sufferers, suggesting that we should endeavour to show the 

 Committee of Lord Tredegar's Show that they must enforce 

 some alteration, or we must decline entering any specimens ; 

 and I forwarded also with the list and my suggestions a memo- 

 rial to the Committee, which I had already signed, for each 

 exhibitor who pleased, to sign and forward to the next on the 

 list, and in case of declining to sign still to forward the papers. 

 During the past few days the memorial and its signatures have 

 been returned to me, and by me duly forwarded to Mr. Palling, 

 the Honorary Secretary. ■ 



There were, at the last Show at Newport, 2.53 entries ; ninety- 

 three of these were made by residents at Newport and in its 

 immediate vicinity. Possibly this number is below the actual 

 amount, as from the catalogue I may have omitted some, not 

 knowing that the places were really local. There are also 

 several exhibitors to whom the memorial was never sent, 



